WOOL

“The worst welfare problems for sheep, such as starvation, lameness and being eaten alive by maggots, arise from the sins of omission and neglect.” John Webster, Professor of Animal Husbandry, University of Bristol[i]

Fleecing the Public

The closest most people come to sheep is seeing flocks grazing on hillsides as they drive along the motorway.  The apparent freedom and lack of constraints often fools people into imagining that sheep live a carefree and idyllic life.  It is true that as a species they have not been subject to the same level of intensification as cows and chickens have suffered, so there has been far less public criticism of sheep farming than other livestock industries.  The foot and mouth outbreak of 2001 highlighted some welfare problems and the live export trade has rightly provoked much outrage amongst animal welfare campaigners.  However, there are many other problems associated with the production of wool, mutton and lamb that go largely unnoticed by the national press and the general public.

Sheep were domesticated about 10,000 years ago.  The species has been manipulated to suit human desire for meat and wool, with the result that sheep now bear little resemblance to their wild ancestors.

Wool is not taken from sheep that live a gentle existence on a lush grassy knoll.  Sheep are raised for financial gain, and this comes from meat as well as wool. It is a misconception that wool is simply a by-product of the meat industry and that one might even be providing a service by 'using it up' – like leather, wool provides extra income to perpetuate animal suffering.

The world’s sheep population now stands at more than 1 billion.[ii]  They suffer from a variety of welfare problems, ranging from maggot infestations to mastitis and foot rot.  They are extremely vulnerable to neglect whilst also being forced to endure a range of human interferences, from tail-docking and castration to dipping and spraying.

Australia’s shame

It is estimated that there are now around 94.5 million sheep in Australia.[iii]  Flocks consist of thousands of sheep and individual attention to the animals' needs is considered uneconomical.  20-25% of lambs die at birth or before the age of eight weeks[iv] from exposure to extreme weather conditions or starvation. Lambs undergo ear punching for identification, tail docking, castration, dipping, spraying and mulesing (see below).  Rams are regarded as too difficult to handle, so the vast majority of male sheep are wethers (castrated rams).  After these procedures, lambs may suffer shock, profuse bleeding, blood poisoning, tetanus, dislocated joints and arthritis.

The Merino is the most commonly used breed in Australia.  It is bred specifically for its wrinkly skin and fine white wool.  Wrinkly skin means more wool per sheep and thus more money for the farmer.  This unnatural overload of wool causes animals to die of heat exhaustion during hot spells, and the wrinkles collect urine and moisture.  Attracted to the moisture, flies lay eggs in the folds of skin, and the hatched maggots may actually eat sheep alive (flystrike also occurs in the UK).  The sheep will suffer agonising pain.

To counter flystrike a procedure called mulesing (illegal in Britain) is carried out on most of the lambs and sheep.  Farmers carve strips of flesh (not wool) from around the anal and vaginal area of sheep without anaesthetic or any training or qualification requirements.  This leaves a smooth scar that won't harbour fly eggs.  However flies are often attracted to the dreadful wounds before they heal, often causing infection and intensifying the pain and suffering for the sheep.[v] 

After mulesing, all lambs show abnormal behaviour that is thought to be indicative of extreme pain for 24 hours, some still show signs of pain after two days.  Mulesed lambs continued to avoid the person who had carried out the procedure for 3 months after the event, suggesting that they remembered the experience and wanted to avoid its repetition.[vi]  Mulesing is a bloody business and the wound will take 3-5 weeks to heal. The procedure can also go wrong and lead to infection.[vii]  The process continues in spite of a warning from Rob Powell, chair of the New South Wales Livestock Contractors Association mulesing subcommittee, that poor mulesing practices may lead to problems throughout a sheep’s life, costing the farmer millions of dollars in terms of damaged carcasses.[viii] Another dreadful procedure carried out in Australia (now illegal in Britain) is tooth grinding.  Teeth are ground down exposing the pulpy nerve, which causes excruciating pain and suffering to millions of animals.[ix]

Shearing in Australia - a Nightmare

An estimated one million Australian sheep die every year of exposure after shearing.[x]  Shearing is on a piece rate contract (shearers get paid more money the more sheep they shear) so there is no incentive to handle sheep carefully.  Stories of mistreatment and cruelty are common.  One person who worked as a wool classer in Australia for many years is on record as saying "the shearing shed must be one of the worst places in the world for cruelty to animals.  I have seen shearers punch sheep with their shears or their fists until the sheep's nose bled.  I have seen sheep with half their faces shorn off, no stitches ever being applied, not even as much as an antiseptic.  Wethers have had their pizzles [penises] shorn straight off".[xi]

From Australia to the Middle East - a Catalogue of Suffering

Once ewes grow old and become unproductive, they are shipped to the Middle East for slaughter.  It is normal for sheep to be without feed and water during mustering, loading/unloading and transporting to assembly depots on the coast. Here they are held in feedlots where many die.  These animals have spent their life grazing for food; they are now expected to eat pelleted feed.  Many sheep fail to adjust to this change in diet and so starve to death.

Every year over six million sheep make the three week journey from Australia or New Zealand to the Middle East.  Every year around 200,000 of them die.[xii] In modern carriers the sheep pens are usually above deck, often stacked eight or nine tiers high, so newly shorn sheep are exposed to the elements and to rolling and pitching.  They are packed so tightly that ventilation is a major problem. Younger animals or lambs born en route to the Middle East are often trampled to death.  The most common causes of death are heat stroke, starvation and disease. For every sheep that dies very many others are ill, injured or near to death when they arrive at their destination.

·         900 cattle and 1400 sheep died or had to be destroyed in 2002 after suffering from the excessive heat and humidity as they entered the Persian Gulf.  This occurred on the maiden voyage of the MV Becrux, a ship that had been designed “with animal welfare in mind”.[xiii]

• In August 1996, the livestock carrier The Uniceb caught fire while carrying sheep from Australia to Jordan.  All 67,488 sheep on board died by burning or drowning.[xiv]

• 15,000 sheep died – mostly from heat exhaustion - aboard the Fernando F in 1985.[xv]

• In 1981, 8,764 sheep died when ventilation broke down onboard The Persia.[xvi]

• In 1980, 40,605 sheep were lost when the Farid Fares caught fire and sank.[xvii]

Those that survive the journey arrive in the Middle East and are transported to feedlots to await slaughter.  They may stay in these feedlots for up to 6 weeks, during which time an estimated 100,000 die each year from heat exhaustion and other factors.[xviii] 

• During the 1991 Gulf War, 30,000 Australian sheep arrived in war-devastated Kuwait and died from heat stroke and dehydration[xix]

The Industry in the UK

The UK has a very diverse industry involving sheep being raised on lowland, upland and hill areas.  Upland and hill areas are rough grazing, which combines severe climate, difficult topography, low soil fertility and inaccessibility.

While the UK sheep industry is geared primarily to the production of meat, it is, after Spain, the second-largest wool-producing country in Europe.  There was a total of 35.9 million sheep in the UK in 2004[xx], which is significantly less than pre foot and mouth levels of 42.3 million.[xxi] In 2004, 15,194,000 ewes, rams and lambs were slaughtered for their meat and replaced with new animals.[xxii]  A total of 3,487,000 sheep were slaughtered and ‘disposed of’ during 2001’s foot and mouth outbreak.[xxiii]

There is no industry in any country where the production of animal fibres does not cause suffering.  It is an erroneous decision to buy British because the British treat their farm animals 'properly'.  No animal raised for profit is going to live a life free from suffering.  Indeed one cannot purchase fibre from an animal (alive or dead) without admitting some responsibility for the industry that produced that fibre.  At the end of the day, concern over the wool's country of origin matters little to the animal abused or slaughtered for it.

Too Many Sheep - Not Enough Shepherds

Over the last 10-15 years the sheep-to-shepherd ratio has changed from 350 ewes per shepherd in 1980 to 700 ewes per shepherd in 1992, when the last major survey of sheep welfare was conducted.  In some areas, up to 1000 ewes per shepherd is now common.[xxiv]  An increase in the number of stock per shepherd will inevitably lead to deterioration in the level of care of individual sheep.  It is impossible for one person to cope adequately with over 1000 ewes.  The government's own advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC), noted in their report on the Welfare of Sheep that "with very large sheep/shepherd ratios, there may be a high incidence of foot problems and dirty wool around the tails which were the first signs of developing problems associated with understaffing".[xxv]

Shearing

Wool insulates sheep from the cold in the winter and the heat in the summer although specialist breeding ensures more wool than is actually natural or necessary.  Whilst in full fleece they find it difficult to cope with local irritations and usually seek a post or rail to scratch on (sheep rarely groom each other).  In the absence of a suitable object to rub against they will roll on to their backs.  When in full fleece or heavily pregnant they may fail to get up and, if not seen, will die.  Not all lambs recognise their mother without her coat and the ewe may not be able to count her lambs correctly, this can result in lambs starving to death.

Wool is normally removed from sheep during the early summer.  However, it can be done in very early spring or in winter soon after housing.  The majority are shorn for the first time at 14-15 months old, and then annually.  Wet, windy and cold conditions can result in severe chilling, and in some cases, death.  It takes 7-8 weeks for the coat to grow sufficiently to protect the animal.[xxvi]  Winter shearing has been widely adopted in some areas, particularly south west England, as a consequence of winter housing.  Initially, the main benefit was the reduction in pen and trough space requirement.

Contract shearing is now well-established throughout the UK and such teams are usually well equipped, bringing with them their own equipment.  Contract shearers clip between 120-150 sheep per day.  Sheep shearers work at breakneck pace and rarely fail to nick or cut the animals, which are manhandled and pinned to the ground like rodeo steers on a bad day.  Some rams have their pizzles cut straight off.

Dipping & Spraying

Dipping sheep for external parasites and as prevention against fly strike has been an accepted practice for many years.  Before dips were developed, sheep were infected with lice, keds (wingless biting flies), ticks and suffered from mycotic dermatitis (a fungal skin infection characterized by scabs and matted wool).  Fly strike was, to some extent, avoided by crutching and dagging (cutting away of dirty, wet wool from around the tail and anus) and the sheep were frequently washed in dammed up streams and rivers to keep them clean.  The first dips were made of arsenic and sulphur and were sent abroad to the huge wool-producing countries such as Australia, New Zealand and South America throughout the nineteenth century, and continued to be used until the 1930s when DDT and BHC (benzene hexachloride) were introduced.

With the coming of dieldrin, which has a creeping effect and carries the dip chemicals down the wool fibres and on to the skin surface of the sheep, dips became more effective and longer acting.  Unfortunately dieldrin, along with DDT and BHC belong to a group of chemicals that are capable of being absorbed into the body fat of the animal, remaining there for quite long periods and being excreted in the milk.[xxvii]  These so-called organo-chlorines can build up to toxic levels all the way up the food chain of both man and animal[xxviii] and their use for sheep dipping is now forbidden except under license. They were superseded by the organo-phosphates, which are perhaps somewhat less efficient, but were introduced after the ban on the more efficient organo-chlorines.  These methods are used for the control of external parasites, which can cause prolonged stress and discomfort and, if infestation remains undetected, can lead to serious losses.  Both dipping and spraying involve stress to the animal.  If carried out during very hot weather, poisoning may occur due to absorption.  Spraying is less upsetting and there is less risk of injury but it is not as thorough and the period of protection is shorter.

Intensification of Sheep

There are many health problems associated with being housed indoors.  In order to provide optimum welfare for sheep housed indoors, the level of stockmanship with lambing needs to be as high as, if not higher, than that of outdoor lambing.  Competition for space when feeding, as well as during lambing, can cause stress on the ewes.  Mismothering is much more likely to occur with higher stocking densities unless there is proper supervision, and ewe and lamb/s are often separately penned for one or two days before moving outside.

All forms of enclosed housing increase the danger of joint ill, E.  coli, heat stress, pneumonia and Maedi Visna (the latter two are respiratory droplet borne diseases).  Ewes have to be shorn six to eight weeks before lambing which may be a risk to her and the health of her offspring.  There is also a danger of disease build-up of coccidiosis and all enteric parasites (worms).  There is also a necessity for clean bedding and dung clearing.  Mastitis may be caused (particularly to milk producing animals) from accumulated contaminated bedding.

In the UK there are trends in lowland sheep farming towards increasing stocking density and flock size plus housing for prolonged periods during winter.  It is well-established that stocking rate is a major factor affecting the profitability of lowland sheep enterprises.

Hill Farming + Public Money = Suffering

Income from the sale of lambs and wool is insufficient to sustain hill sheep farming so it is supported by subsidy, paid from public funds. Under the CAP reforms, this subsidy is paid according to area of land grazed (with different areas receiving different levels of subsidy, rather than quantities of livestock farmed. The Single Farm Payment will from 2005, top this up, though the exact basis on which this is to be paid (it is likely, at least at first, to be based on historic entitlement more than area of land, in order to facilitate a smooth transition to CAP) is yet to be decided.[xxix]

Previous subsidies were paid on the basis of productive ewes (i.e. to produce more lambs) so they needed to be fed and well cared for, but later on they were based on number of ewes up to an agreed quota, requiring little more than for the to ewes remain alive with little attention needed to be paid to their welfare.

Cruel Procedures [xxx]

If incorrectly carried out, some procedures have the potential to cause injury and suffering to sheep.  For example, abscesses may develop after vaccination, a dosing gun can injure a mouth, feet may be damaged during trimming, or haemorrhaging caused by tail docking.

Farmers with lowland flocks often castrate and tail soon after birth.  Removing them from their mothers at this early stage can mean that lambs obtain insufficient colostrum, which can result in hypothermia or watery mouth (an E-coli infection).

Available evidence suggests that all methods of castration and tailing cause pain and distress which may be detected by alterations in behaviour such as posture and activity, and by alterations in cortisol concentrations in the blood.

Castration

Around 8 million lambs are castrated each year.[xxxi]  Scientific research shows that this procedure causes severe pain.[xxxii]  Farmers say they castrate their lambs to help fatten them up or because once they become sexually mature they become aggressive and breed indiscriminately.  Many lambs, however, are slaughtered before reaching the age of sexual maturity so this rather invalidates their argument.  In 1994 FAWC urged farmers to stop castrating their lambs but this has been largely ignored.  Castration is usually carried out by the following methods:

• application of a tight rubber ring carried out without anaesthetic under one week of age.

• application of a bloodless castrator such as the Burdizzo (which crushes the blood vessels leading to the testicles).

• surgical castration involving cutting the skin carried out without anaesthetic up to three months of age.

Haemorrhage and local infections are always a risk and may lead to death.

A report in the British Veterinary Journal[xxxiii] showed eight out of the nine farmers interviewed were using the wrong size of castrator, which probably applied excessive crushing pressure over an unnecessarily large part of the lamb's scrotum.  In six out of fifteen flocks, cases of injury and even death attributable to castration were reported.  It is generally agreed that it is just as painful on the day of birth as it is at several weeks of age.  Castration is more of a tradition that a sound management practice.

Tail Docking

Tail docking is carried out to reduce the risk of sheep contracting maggots through flystrike.  However, it is carried out without anaesthetic and is an extremely painful and traumatic experience for young lambs.

It is carried out by the following methods:

• the application of a rubber ring.

• cutting with a sharp knife which may cause haemorrhaging, the risk of infection of the exposed stump or death.

• the application of a hot iron.

Identification

Sheep are identified by the following methods:

• ear notching, which is carried out from a few days of age up to about 8 weeks causing bleeding.

• ear tattooing at a few months which may cause a haematoma if a blood vessel is damaged.

• ear tagging at any age may cause infection and fly strike around the tag hole, particularly in the summer.

• horn branding when sufficient horn has grown at about 12 months of age which may cause pain if not carried out on the insensitive part of the horn.

Stomach Tube or Slow Cooking?

Lambs that are too weak to feed directly from the ewe are usually given colostrum (the first milk produced by the sheep after lambing) via a stomach tube, which is an extremely traumatic procedure for the lamb.  This may be made even worse by uncaring rough handling by the farmer or shepherd.  When a lamb is unable to hold up its head, stomach tubing can be dangerous, so instead a glucose or dextrose solution is often injected into the peritoneal cavity.  A recovering lamb can be warmed under an infra-red lamp; however there are many sad cases of lambs being "cooked" in warming boxes.

Internal Examination & Manipulation

Many sheep farmers use cervical artificial insemination as an aid to genetic improvement.  There has, however, been a recent development whereby semen is deposited directly into the uterus beyond the cervix. The use of laparoscopy for inserting semen or embryos directly into the uterus rather than the cervix is designed purely for commercial gain.  By referring to the human experience of laparoscopy or women’s experiences of cervical manipulation e.g. insertion or removal of IUDs, it suggests recurrent or lasting pain.

Money Short? - Increase the Suffering

FAWC states that in recent years when money is short, some farmers have cut back by deliberately omitting treatments which others would see as essential e.g. vaccination against clostridial diseases.  FAWC also claims many cases of incorrect or inappropriate treatments being applied e.g. wormers or flukicides being given at inappropriate times or to unsuitable groups of stock.

Lameness

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) – now known as the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) - code on sheep welfare states:

“Lameness in any animal is usually an indication of pain.  Lameness in sheep is one of the most common signs of ill health and discomfort. It has clear adverse welfare implications.”[xxxiv]

A 1994 study by the Royal Veterinary College found a reported incidence of lameness of about 8 per cent.[xxxv]

One of main causes of lameness is foot rot.  Research has shown that foot rot in sheep can result in a higher death rate and increased susceptibility to fly strike.  It is spread from sheep to sheep via pasture or bedding contaminated with bacteria from the feet of infected animals (which may be symptomless carriers).

Mastitis

Mastitis is an ancient disease causing inflammation of the udder by bacteria, which usually gain access via the teat canal.  There are several types of infection, the most common being caused by staphylococci, mannheimia, haemolytica, streptococci and E-coli. 

Clinical mastitis is indicated by hard and distended udders that are hot to the touch with lumps that can be felt, and where a beery liquid can be extracted from the teat.  Sometimes there are clots of blood or a thick yellow pus-like substance that is difficult to milk out.  In really acute cases the ewe will have a raised temperature and the udder may start to turn a very dark colour as gangrene sets in.  If this occurs, the whole or part of the udder can eventually slough off.  In extreme cases, the ewe will rapidly die of septicaemia.  Mild mastitis in sheep will result in permanent damage to the udder, usually in the form of abscesses, and ewes are often culled as a result.  Study of cull ewes at slaughter indicates that mastitis is one of the main causes of culling, with prevalence ranging from 13% to 50%.[xxxvi]

Acute mastitis in ewes is increasing year on year as producers breed ewes for higher milk production and gear feeding regimes to maximise this potential. Improved feeding regimes and the selection of milkier ewes means that milk levels exceed the lambs' requirements, allowing milk to go stale in the udder.  This then becomes infected - often with a staphylococcus bacterium - and mastitis occurs.  The danger periods are when ewes are housed on dirty, wet bedding which allows the bug to multiply and, more significantly, at weaning.

Sheep Scab

Sheep scab is one of the most serious welfare problems producers may encounter in their flocks and it is currently widespread. 

In 2000, the report of the Chief Veterinary Officer for MAFF stated:

“Sheep scab (P.ovis) is widespread in GB and attempts at treatment are often ineffective…It is only a matter of time before resistance [to available treatments] occurs due to their inappropriate use…It seems unlikely that the sheep industry has sufficient co-ordination to tackle this disease, which represents a significant welfare problem.”[xxxvii]

Confirmation of this comes from the leather industry. In 1989, the British Leather Confederation found that 1 to 2% of sheep pelts showed damage associated with sheep scab; by 1995 this figure had risen to 15%.[xxxviii]    Human health concerns over the use of organophosphate (OP) dips[xxxix] have seen many producers switch to using non-OP, so-called ‘safer’ alternatives, such as the synthetic pyrethroids, to control the mite. It is now apparent that pyrethroid dips such as Bayticol are 100 times more toxic to insect life in watercourses than OPs.[xl]

Some Other Health Problems

Abortion - Caused by malnutrition, dog worrying, chlamydia (enzootic abortion).

Copper deficiency (swayback) - Symptoms are usually seen in young lambs as loss of coordination in the hind limbs.  The condition can also manifest itself as poor growth rate in lambs, and as dullness of the fleece in adults.

Enzootic abortion - Caused by Chlamydia psittaci.  Infected animals usually abort the lamb.  Fluids and membranes are highly infectious for at least 2 weeks.  Personnel can develop flu-like symptoms and several cases of human abortion have been attributed to close contact with infected sheep.[xli]

Flystrike - Caused by blowflies laying eggs on the fleece, these hatch into maggots and eat the animal alive.  Tell-tale signs include dark patches and odd behaviour of so-called 'struck' sheep.  A 'struck' sheep of any age is in great pain and appears almost in a state of shock, not unlike a person with severe burns.

Foot rot - This can become so bad that sheep graze on their knees.  Acute pain can be caused by dung fly maggots hatching in a poorly trimmed foot.

Orf - A nasty skin complaint caused by a virus that primarily affects the lips of lambs and the teats and udders of ewes.  It may also affect the genitalia and area adjoining the hooves in older animals.

Hypocalcaemia (lambing sickness) - The symptoms include listlessness, lack of coordination and lying down on the chest with the head resting on the ground.  If it is not identified and treated, it usually leads to death in 6-12 hours.

Hypomagnesaemia (staggers) - Caused mainly by stress on the lactating ewe at grass in the first few weeks after lambing.  The main symptoms include excitability, nervous twitching, staggering and convulsions.  It is common in ewes grazing heavily fertilized improved pasture.  The condition is a dietary deficiency that can be prevented by supplementation with magnesium.

Joint ill – A bacterial injection of the joint(s) and / or adjacent bone(s).  A common cause of lameness.

Milk fever or lambing sickness - Caused by failure of the ewe to mobilize calcium at or shortly after lambing.  Death can be fast unless an injection of calcium borogluconate can be administered at the first signs.

Navel ill - Caused by infection E-coli which enters the body of the new-born lamb through the wet navel.

Mannheimia (formerly known as pasteurella) – A bacteria that commonly infects newborn and weaned lambs (as well as cattle) often causing to pneumonia, which in turn may lead to secondary infections, which include mastitis. Very often fatal.[xlii]

Pneumonia - This is common in some breeds and in Israel has been found a great problem in the Friesland breed.  It can be either microbial or viral, or caused by poor drenching.

Sore umbilical cords in lambs - Although the umbilicus soon dries, it hangs as hard dry thread for many days.  It is not uncommon for it to get trodden or knocked before it is healed sufficiently to drop off and if not treated promptly the sore can become infected.

Toxoplasmosis - A widespread cause of abortion in sheep.  Infection is very common in humans.

Worms & fluke - It is almost impossible to keep sheep for any length of time without them being affected by worms.

Breeding

Ewes are increasingly bred to produce twins or triplets although they only have two teats and can only feed one or two lambs.  During lambing "spare" lambs are forced to adopt ewes with a spare teat.  One way that this is done is to skin a dead infant and put the skin over the "spare" lamb - it is hoped that this will persuade the ewe that the new lamb is in fact her own.  The ewe may also be held by her neck in an ‘adopter box’ (a wooden contraption resembling a stocks) for up to five days to prevent her from rejecting the newly born lamb.[xliii]

The oestrus (cycle of sexual receptivity) of each ewe may be manipulated so that they give birth at the same time, which is much more convenient for farmers.  Progestagen impregnated intravaginal sponges are inserted into the vagina for around two weeks, after which the ewes are treated with Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotrophin (PMSG). The ram is introduced 24-48 hours later, by which time the ewes are in heat. Infection or injury may be caused by insertion of the sponge if not done gently, or if equipment is not kept well sanitised. This method is also used for artificial insemination (AI) as it allows for accurate timing of ovulation.[xliv] 

When employing AI, teaser rams are often also introduced into the flock to help the whole process along.  Semen is collected from rams using an artificial vagina.<